Power-driven trolley-head.



No. 792,177. PATENTED JUNE 13, 1905. W. J. SUMNER.

POWER DRIVEN TROLLEY HEAD.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 14, 1904.

no. 792,177. Patented June 13, 1905.

Nrren STATES PATET price.

IVILLIAM J. SUMNER, OF HOLYOKE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE COBURN TROLLEY TRACK MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF WVILLI- MANSETT, MASSACHUSET'ISA CORPORATION.

POWER-DRIVEN TROLLEY-HEAD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 792,177, dated June 13, 1905.

Application filed November 14, 1904. Serial No. 232,676.

In In whom it nan/y cmwm'n: hereinafter-described trolley-head in connec- Be it known that I, IVILLIAM J. SUMNER, a t-ion with the rack c. 5 citizen of the United States of America, resid- The trolley-head is supported on two pairs ing at Holyoke, in the county of Hampden and of wheels 6 and a, which are secured to the State of Massachusetts, haveinvented new and outer extremities of two axles f and f",which useful Improvements in Power-Driven Trolare supported in the upper ends 9 of two ley-Heads, of which the following is a speciarms 76, which depend below said wheels and fication. extend through 'the track-slot (Z. From a This invention relates to trolleys employed point near the lower end of the shaft these 10 in connection with an overhead track, and has arms are made round in cross-section and special reference to improved power-driven their lower ends are threaded to receive the trolley-heads for use in a track of the characnuts 7', together with a suitable check-nut, ter above described, the object thereof being these lower ends extending loosely through to provide a construction of trolleyhead the ends of a yoke k. These extremities of 5 adapted to be driven by power from a motor the yoke are chambered out on the underside suspended from the trolley-head independthereof to receive a suitable ball-bearing m, ently of the traction efiect of the wheels bear- (shown only in dotted lines in Fig. 1,) to the 5 ing on the track; and the invention consists end that whatever may be the weight susin the construction described in the following pended from said yoke the arms lt may freely 2O specification and pointed out in the claims. rotate more or less on their longitudinal axes,

\ In the drawings forming part of this apwhereby when the trolley-head passes around plication, Figure l is a side elevation of a trola piece of curved track the wheels may adapt 7 ley-head to which the invention has been themselves to the curvature thereof. It is applied, the track and the rack supported unnecessary to describe here the nature of 5 above it being shown in longitudinal section. -the bearing construction in which the axlesf Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation on line 2 2, rotate, it being sufiicient to say that it is Fig. 1. preferably aroller-bearingso constructed that Referringnow to the drawings,the track (insaid shaft will turn on the rolls 0. (Shown in dicatcd by a) is shownin Fig. 2 as made up of dotted lines in Fig. 1.)

3 two independent longitudinally-disposed sec- On the yoke a vertically-disposed frame is tions according to a well-known manner to constructed, which extends up through the constitute a suitable overhead track, each of track-slot (Z, and it consists of the two tipthe sections thereof having an inturned lower rights p, whose upper ends are connected toedge constituting the tread portion of the gether by two flat bars firmly secured one to 35 track, said track-sections being supported in each side at the upper end of these uprights. brackets 7), located at suitable intervals along The latter are provided with a broad base the track and screwed up against suitable supportion '7', rectangular in cross-section,through porting-beams. Provision is made in each which the arms 71 extend and in which they bracket to receive a rack c, which" is located fit loosely, and uniting the lower ends of these 4 centrally between the two depending arms of two uprights are two other flat bars 8, each sethe brackets and may be secured thereto by cured to opposite sides of said lower portions bolts or otherwise in substantially the same On a shaft t between the bars 9 is located a 9 plane as the track-slot (Z between the two secgear o, the teeth of which mesh with the teeth tions of the track. of the rack 0 above it and also with the teeth 45 The track construction constitutes no part of another gear '10 below it, which last-named of this invention, and some other form of gear is supported between the flat bars 8 on track may be substituted therefor, if desired, a shaft In, the extremities of which shaft ex- Y which will permit the operation therein of the tend through two bushings 3 in the bars .9,

the shaft.

is suspended from a horizontally-disposed rod '7, which extends through swivcled supports 8, pivotally connected with the yoke Z by a bolt 9. The swiveled connection 8, tln'ough which the rod 7 passes, is arranged,

5 as shown in Fig. 2, to swing on a vertical axis, and to render this swinging movement as free as possible this connection is provided also with a ball-bearing 10, which bearing is embraced by a two-part supporting member 12, the two halves of which depend from the bolt 9, which passes through the yoke 7;. By means of this latter connection with the yoke it is clear that the swiveled connection 8 may also swing on the bolt 9, as well as rotate on its 2 5 own vertical axis, and as the rod 7 passes freely through this swiveled connection 8 the motor-platform, which is supported on straps 14:, depending from the rod 7, may swing in. any direction more or less freely, whereby no 0 strain may be put upon the trolley-head when the latter is passing around a curve. In practice the straps 1e would of course be located each side of the supports of the rod 7.

It is of course immaterial what type of motor is employed, and it has not been deemed necessary to show any motor or platform herein. Preferably, however, an electric motor would be employed, and it would lie with in the province of any one skilled in the art to establish such a motor and platform and connect therewith a chain or chains 6, whereby the gear w may be rotated in either direction to drive the trolleyhead.

This particular form of traction de'vlce 1s especially adapted to be used in many places,

as in mills and factories where it is necessary to make frequent shifts of hoary material, as the track and the trolley-head may be adapted to curves of a short radius, and the track 5 is capable of being provided with switches and branches. This form of power-driven trolley-head is also particularly adapted to be used for carrying material up-an incline where the traction effect of the wheels alone would be unequal to the task were the wheels rotated directly from the gear 1/, as described in another application filed by me concurrently herewith, instead of being provided with the rack c, with which the driving-gears are directly connected.

In practice any platform suspended. from the rod 7 would be supported ordinarily by a trolley-head such as is shown in Fig. 1 in one end and by a similar trolley-head minus the gears and in at the other end, or, if desired, two heads such as described herein and similarly driven may be used. Such a platform with its motor provides traction-power sufficient for all ordinary uses, to which may be attached trailers consisting of other platforms running on the track (A and drawn by the motor.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

1. The combination with an overhead-trolley track, of a trolley-head thereon comprising wheels to bear on the track, supports for said wheels rotatable on an axis vertical to the track, a rack supported above the track, a gear on the trolley-head, to mesh with the rack, and means to rotate said gear.

2. The combination with an overhead-trolley track comprising two parallel track portions having a track-slot between them, of a trolley-head to run on said tracks, a rack supported above the track, a gear supported on the trolley-head in mesh with said rack, said gear being located between said two track portions.

The combination with an overhead-trolley track comprising two parallel track portions having a track-slot between them, of a trolley-head comprising wheels to run on said track portions, arms having bearings in the upper ends thereof for said wheels, the lower ends of the arms depending through said trackslot, a rigid connecting member between said arms, and a gear supported on said member in the plane of the track-slot, and extending into the latter, a rack located in operative relation to said gear with which the latter engages, and means to rotate said gear.

4:. A tubular overhead-trolley track, a trol' ley-head suspended from the track and comprising wheels to run in said track; a rack in said tubular track, a gear supported on the trolley-head to engage said rack, and means on the head located. outside the track to impart rotary movements to said gear.

VILLIAM J. SUMNER. Vitnesses:

K. I. CLnMoNs, \Vn. H. OnArinv. 

